Abuse in schools

Egypt school beating 'kills boy'

The maths teacher, Haitham Nabeel Abdelhamid, who worked at Saad Othman school, was furious because Islam Amro had not finished his homework.

After using a ruler to punish him, the teacher is alleged to have taken the young boy outside the classroom and hit him violently in his stomach.

The young pupil fainted and later died in hospital of heart failure.

He was taken from the school to hospital but suffered a sharp drop in blood pressure and heart failure.

The teacher is reported by Egyptian newspaper Al Masry Alyoum to have told the prosecutor that he was only trying to "discipline the boy, not to kill him".

Mr Abdelhamid was remanded in custody on manslaughter charges.

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Pretty shocking story. The little boy looks so adorable, I can't believe he died because of something as trivial as maths homework ...

I've seen my share of child abuse during my early school days. The most memorable is back when I was in grade 1 or grade 2. I was playing tag outside with my friends in the hot Omani sun during breaktime at school. The naughty girl of the class, called Aisha, was playing with us as well. The sun was really strong that day, and I started feeling dizzy. Suddenly, Aisha ran behind me and "tagged" me by pushing really hard on my back. I fell face first unto the concrete and blacked out for a few seconds. When I opened my eyes, I was being dragged by my friends to the clinic and had the most incredible pain in my forehead, as well as a really huge bump. The school's doctor sent me to the hospital for head X-rays, and thank goodness I did not crack my skull or anything dangerous. When I got back from the hospital, I walked into class with the nurse to a loud gasp from my homeroom teacher. The nurse informed her what happened to me, and one of the girls who was playing tag earlier told the teacher that Aisha had pushed me. The teacher called Aisha to the front of the class, and started screaming at her. She demanded an explanation for why she pushed me, but Aisha couldn't provide one, so she kept quiet. The teacher gave Aisha an ear splitting slap to the face. I think my eyes opened wide at that moment with shock. I was thinking "Why did she slap her? Aisha didn't push me on purpose." The teacher continued yelling at Aisha, then told her to go sit at her table. Amazingly, even with the red mark of the teacher's hand forming rapidly on her cheek, Aisha didn't shed a tear. She quietly sat at her table and stared ahead. I don't remember what happened after that, but I do remember Aisha having a bruise on her cheek the next day in the shape of a hand.

I realized later that the reason why Aisha was treated so harshly is because she had a reputation for being the "bad" girl in class. She wouldn't do her homework, she always had stains on her uniform, and her hair was always a mess. I suppose the teacher was already displeased with her on many accounts, and her almost breaking my head pushed her over the edge. However, she still should not have slapped Aisha that way. What if she has broken her jaw? Or perhaps caused some damage to her ear?

This article also kinda got me thinking about my little brother and sisters whom are still in school, could they someday face such a situation? I'm kinda worried to be honest, because even the fact of them being in one of the best schools in Muscat doesn't totally eliminate the risk of such a scenario. What if one of their teachers was going through some emotional trauma and suddenly snapped at one of the children.

I do realize that teachers are only human, and that they are subject to anger just like any of us. However, they are the people shaping and molding the brains of children and teens all over the world, and therefore are the elite of the human race and should be better (at least in my opinion). The idea of hitting children really needs to be eliminated once and for all.